IUCN at UN Biodiversity Conference CBD COP16

In 2021, IUCN launched the IUCN Flagship Report Series, to help demonstrate the importance of conserving nature for human well-being and all life on Earth. This report, the second in the series, focuses on agriculture and nature. The interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between the two sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for ending hunger and ensuring food security while also mandating the protection and restoration of nature. Whether the two can be achieved simultaneously, and if so how, are crucial questions for humanity and our planet. IUCN therefore explores the positive and negative relationships between agriculture and nature conservation and mobilises new modelling approaches to examine both imperatives within a range of realistic policies.

CLP is an international capacity building programme that supports young conservationists in to undertake applied biodiversity projects. Each year, CLP calls for project applications in low- and middle-income countries and some high-income islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. Funding is awarded to teams of early-career conservationists to conduct scientific research, promote pro-conservation attitudes, and deliver tangible results to conserve and manage biodiversity.

There are three grant levels. Starting with a Future Conservationist Award, teams are supported to undertake small-scale research and awareness-raising projects. Then through Follow-up and Leadership awards, teams can implement larger projects over a longer period of time and implement deliver practical solutions while learning more complex decision-making, communication, and leadership skills. As part of the award, winning teams can access expertise from within the partner organisations and via our global Alumni Network, which includes past award-winners.

Programme staff members are also available to advise on project implementation, including guidance required during the planning and team training stages. Each year CLP runs a two-week Conservation Management & Leadership Course for recent award winners. CLP is a partnership of three leading biodiversity conservation organisations, BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora International, and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is one of the main tools available to achieve integration of the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes, involving a range of analytical and participatory approaches. SEAs are becoming more urgent and necessary but moving from concept to action and towards results has varied. The OECD has produced guidance notes that promote a more harmonised, effective approach to SEA, working alongside key donor and development agencies. The Guidance explains the benefits of using SEA in development co-operation, sets out key steps for its application based on recent experiences, and presents the nine most interesting case studies of SEA in progress.

Coastal blue carbon ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes, are some of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth, and are vital to mitigating the impacts of climate change. They are also critical for coastal biodiversity, food security, livelihoods and human well-being, in addition to climate adaptation – protecting millions of people globally from the impacts of storms, coastal flooding and erosion. However, these ecosystems are threatened – half of global mangrove forests have already been lost – and once these ecosystems are degraded or destroyed, their carbon stores are released as carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. This policy framework, developed by Conservation International and IUCN, provides an overview of the intersections and opportunities for blue carbon ecosystem conservation and restoration in the relevant international policy processes.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International and the International Association of Botanic Gardens have jointly published the BGCI and IABG Recovery Manual for Plants to guide projects on plant species recovery. The manual sets out the aims and purpose of species recovery and the steps involved, and indicates good practice. The manual is aimed at conservation practitioners but also includes comprehensive bibliographic references, which enable more in depth reading on the topics covered.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems. IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS). The FAO has produced three volumes in the series Checklists and Technical Guidelines to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. Volume III is a Checklist of monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) systems, operations, procedures and tools. It provides a list of minimum requirements to ensure that the national MCS systems, operations, procedures, and tools aimed at combating IUU fishing are of the desired standard. Additional information on methodologies and indicators is available on the FAO website.

How to use.

• Further details of the FAO tools are available at: https://www.fao.org/iuu-fishing/en/
• The Checklists and Technical Guidelines can be downloaded at: https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cd0245en

This Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy reaffirms and further strengthens IUCN’s commitment to realising gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment and puts into place requirements for embedding a gender-responsive approach into its Programme and project portfolio. Another publication Gender equality for greener and bluer futures: why women’s leadership matters for realising environmental goals includes new IUCN data on the number of women leading environmental ministries, compared with previous data. It also highlights data on why gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential for global goals on achieving an inclusive and sustainable future.

The Addis Ababa principles were adopted by the CBD in 2004 and they provide an overall framework to assist Governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders ensure that the use of species and other elements of biodiversity is sustainable in the long-term. They contain 14 interdependent principles covering policies, laws, adaptive management, research, the needs of indigenous communities, participatory approaches, and education and awareness. The principles are each supported by a set of operational guidelines. The principles are all of general relevance, but each one may not apply equally in all situations and their application will vary according to the species, local conditions, and the institutional and cultural context.

A consistent methodology for prioritising species conservation efforts based on extinction risk data (the Red List) and phylogenetic information; EDGE lists, representing the most evolutionarily distinct and threatened species on Earth, are currently available for all amphibians, birds, mammals, ray-finned fish, reptiles, sharks and rays, freshwater crayfish, and gymnosperms, with lists for other groups, including all angiosperms, forthcoming

These guidelines were prepared in 2016 by the Preventing Poisoning Working Group of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The guidelines cover the impacts from five priority poisoning areas: insecticides, rodenticides, poison-baits, veterinary pharmaceuticals, lead ammunition and fishing weights. Six key recommendations.

This World Bank initiative presents the scientific basis for why and how incorporating biodiversity and nature into urban design is crucial for achieving sustainability and resilience in cities and beyond. The report defines key terms and concepts, explores what urban leaders can do to promote them, and offers practical tools and approaches for incorporating urban nature and biodiversity into decision-making.

The (PCCB) is the convening authority for capacity-building matters under the UNFCCC (UN Climate Change). This toolkit to assess capacity building gaps and needs to implement the Paris Agreement was developed as a resource for developing country officials and partners in the assessment of relevant capacity needs and gaps. This capacity assessment toolkit presents an overview of tools that support the assessment of capacity needed to address climate change.

It identifies key points and steps involved in the assessment process from design to evaluation, and is supported by case studies. It also  includes examples of approaches that have been successfully adopted as well as links to additional resources that may be accessed via the UNFCCC capacity building portal and other online sources.